Related articles and links |  1 of 2

A few weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks, I traveled to Australia on a book tour. Quite understandably, people there had more interest in discussing anthrax and the war in Afghanistan than in discussing my book. Although Australians support U.S. policy, and have lent ground troops, ships, and planes to our efforts, they have many questions about the origin of terrorism and our response. Listening to them, I discovered that I have many questions as well.

Let me make clear that I support wholeheartedly the attempt to bring to justice the perpetrators of that evil deed, and to rid the world of terrorism (some of my reflections are found online at www.christianitytoday.com/go/yancey911/). Even so, these questions continue to nag me:

1. Would a doctrinaire pacifist have participated in the attempt to retake the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 93 by force, in order to save the lives targeted by the hijackers?
   
   
2. How much would it have cost to reconstruct Afghanistan after their war with the Soviet Union, which the United States helped the Afghans fight? How much will it cost to reconstruct it after we finish with it?
   
   
3. Why is the United States so much better at destroying buildings and then rebuilding them—as in Germany, Japan, Korea, Kosovo—than in keeping them from being destroyed in the first place?
   
   
4. Can you bomb a country back into the Stone Age if it already lives in the Stone Age?
   
   
5. How much did the CIA spend training Osama bin Laden and his associates during the war with the Soviet Union?
   
   
6. How much are we now spending to hunt him down?
   
   
7. How do you demolish an ideology of fanaticism when, by killing those who preach it, you attract even more converts to their fanaticism?
   
   
8. During the war with the Soviet Union, Afghans lost one-third of their dwelling places. Yet, thanks to their tradition of hospitality, not a single person went homeless. Why does the richest nation in the world have so many homeless people while one of the poorest nations has none?
   
   
9. Could someone explain to me why the U.S. threatened to break the patent on Cipro after three anthrax deaths, yet vigorously resists "tampering with intellectual property rights" when someone suggests breaking the patent on AIDS drugs for the sake of 25 million infected Africans?
   
   
10. Why is it so much cheaper to prevent war than to conduct it?
    
    
11. Why did television seem so much more useful during the week following September 11? Would our society be better or worse if no comedians, sporting events, or commercials appeared on television?
    
    
12. Why do people resent Americans for consuming so much when world prosperity depends on that consumption?
    
    
13. What do Christians who advocate a simple lifestyle think about our leaders urging us to spend money as an act of patriotism? What do they think about all the people who lose their jobs when we stop spending money? Would Jesus help his neighbors by spending money, or by maintaining his ascetic lifestyle?
    
    
14. If Jesus spoke about money four times as often as he spoke about faith or prayer, why do Christian bookstores carry four times as many books on faith or prayer as they do on money?
    
    
15. Why do we Americans think of ourselves as such generous people when we allocate a smaller percentage of our Gross Domestic Product to foreign aid than does any other industrialized nation?
    
    
16. Why do the people who quote statistics about foreign aid fail to note that Americans prefer to give, not through government grants, but through private organizations such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army?
    
    
17. Why do we Americans, who consider ourselves friendly and compassionate, arouse such hatred in some parts of the world?
    
    

next page... |  1 of 2

February 4 2002, Vol. 46, No. 2